About Brent Green

About Brent GreenThis blog is about Baby Boomers and our impact on business, society, and culture, today and in the future.
Here I explore many themes relevant to those of us on a thoughtful journey to reinvent the future of aging. I am a consultant and author of six books, including "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Principles, Practices, Predictions."
I present workshops and give keynote speeches about the intersection of the Boomer generation, business, aging, and societal transformations.
My company, Brent Green & Associates, Inc., is an internationally award-winning firm specializing in building brands and forming successful commercial relationships with Boomers through the unique power of generational marketing. Marketing to Boomers
I welcome your comments and questions here. This blog is a continuing conversation that began in June 2005, and I'll appreciate hearing from you.

Brent Green & Associates is a leading marketing company with specialized expertise in selling products and services to the Boomer male market, comprised of over 35 million U.S. adults. Click here to visit our website.

Business Experts

Lee EisenbergLee Eisenberg is the author of "The Number," a title metaphorically representing the amount of resources people will need to enjoy the active life they desire, especially post-career. Backed by visionary advice from the former Editor-in-Chief of "Esquire Magazine," Eisenberg urges people to assume control and responsibility for their standard of living. This is an important resource for companies and advisors helping Boomers prepare for their post-career lives.

Kim WalkerKim Walker is a respected veteran of the communications industry in Asia Pacific, with 30 years of business and marketing leadership experience in Australia, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York. His newest venture is SILVER, the only marketing and business consultancy focused on the 50+ market in Asia Pacific. He has been a business trends and market identifier who had launched three pioneer-status businesses to exploit opportunities unveiled by his observations.

Hiroyuki MurataHiroyuki Murata (Hiro) is a well-known expert on the 50+ market and an opinion leader on aging issues in Japan and internationally. Among his noteworthy accomplishments, Murata introduced Curves, the world’s largest fitness chain for women, to Japan and helped make it a successful business. He is also responsible for bringing the first college-linked retirement community to Japan, which opened in Kobe in August 2008.
Hiro is the author of several books, including "The Business of Aging: 10 Successful Strategies for a Diverse Market" and "Seven Paradigm Shifts in Thinking about the Business of Aging." They have been described as “must read books” by more than 30 leading publications including Nikkei, Nikkei Business, Yomiuri, and Japan Industry News. His most recent book, "Retirement Moratorium: What Will the Not-Retired Boomers Change?" was published in August 2007 by Nikkei Publishing.
Hiro serves as President of The Social Development Research Center, Tokyo, a think-tank overseen by METI (Ministry of Economy, Technology, and Industry) as well as Board members and Advisors to various Japanese private companies. He also serves as a Visiting Professor of Kansai University and as a member of Advisory Boards of The World Demographic Association (Switzerland) and ThirdAge, Inc. (U.S.).

For nearly a year, I have been undertaking a radio host odyssey on the WeEarth Global Radio Network. Dovetailing my new book, the show is entitled Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Are Changing the Future.

Guests on my show have included a remarkable cast of thinkers and creators. What they have to say is worth your time, and you can listen to their commentary today and in the future at your convenience, at any moment you want to hear some amazing conversations.

Jed Diamond, Ph.D.

Generation Reinvention 1: The Future of Boomer Men

Jed Diamond, Ph.D. is Director of the MenAlive, a health program that helps men live long and well. Since its inception, Jed has been on the Board of Advisors of the Men's Health Network. He is also a member of the International Society for the Study of the Aging Male and serves as a member of the International Scientific Board of the World Congress on Men's Health. He is the author of many influential books including Male Menopause and The Irritable Male Syndrome.

Carol Orsborn, Ph.D.

Generation Reinvention 2: The Future of Boomer Women

As a leading voice of her generation of women, Carol Orsborn, Ph.D. is CEO of BoomerCommunication.com, and serves as Senior Strategist with Vibrant Nation.com, the largest online community of educated, passionate women 50+. Her blogs and op-eds on work/life run regularly on the site, as well as on the Huffington Post, Humana’s Real4Me and Divine Caroline.com. She has appeared on Oprah and on The Today Show multiple times, and in the pages of People Magazine and The New York Times, among many others. Carol is the author of Boom: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer--the Baby Boomer Woman and The Art of Resilience.

Chuck Nyren

Generation Reinvention 3: the Future of Advertising

Chuck Nyren is an award-winning advertising video producer, creative strategist, copywriter, consultant, and speaker focusing on The International Baby Boomer Market. He has been a consultant for advertising and marketing agencies and companies with products for the 40+ Market, including AARP, National Association of Home Builders, Harris Interactive, AstraZeneca, Bayard Presse (France), The Seattle Direct Marketing Association, WPP's Commonhealth, and Omnicom Group. He is consultant with The Faith Popcorn BrainReserve TalentBank and is on the Advisory Board of GRAND Magazine. Chuck is the author of Advertising to Baby Boomers.

Greg Dobbs

Generation Reinvention 4: The Stories of Our Lives

Greg Dobbs worked for ABC News for 23 years, starting in Chicago as an editor for ABC Radio’s Paul Harvey, then for TV as a producer, then in 1973 becoming a correspondent. In 1977 assigned to ABC’s bureau in London, then in 1982 to Paris, and in mid-1986 to ABC's new bureau in Denver. Memorable domestic news stories covered: the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the San Francisco earthquake, the execution of Gary Gilmore, the Watergate hearings, and the Indian occupation of Wounded Knee Major foreign news stories: the Gulf War; the occupation of the US embassy in Iran; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; the Iran-Iraq war; the ouster of Idi Amin from Uganda; the assassination of Anwar Sadat in Egypt; and the ill-fated Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana in England.

John Erickson

Generation Reinvention 5: the Future of Retirement Housing and Age Inclusiveness in Television

For three decades, John Erickson envisioned and built innovative communities for seniors, understanding before most that an active, social lifestyle and access to good health care were essential for the mental and physical health of seniors.As the founder of Erickson Retirement Communities, the company operates 20 retirement communities with more than 23,000 residents in 11 states. He could have stopped there. But instead, he took what he possessed — a deep understanding of senior America and its strengths — and launched cable network Retirement Living TV in 2006, to provide a new voice to a generation largely ignored by television media.

David Cravit

Generation Reinvention 6: Boomers to Zoomers, the Future of Aging in Canada

David Cravit is Executive Vice President of ZoomerMedia Ltd. David possesses over 30 years’ experience in advertising, marketing and consulting in Canada and the US. Previous to working with ZoomerMedia, David was a partner in Saffer Cravit & Freedman Advertising, which he helped take from start-up to over $150 million in annual billings. The agency had offices in Toronto and Chicago, and was recognized as a leading retail specialist agency in North America. After selling his interest in the business, David worked as an independent consultant to other advertising agencies in Canada and the USA, before joining ZoomerMedia in November 2005. David is author of The New Old.

Lori Bitter

Generation Reinvention 7: Marketing to Boomers, an International Perspective

Lori Bitter launched Continuum Crew following the closure of JWT BOOM, the nation’s leading mature market advertising and marketing company. As President, she was responsible for mature consumer strategy across a number of industries, most notably age targeted and age restricted real estate. In her role at JWT BOOM, Lori managed the production of LiveWire: The Summit (formerly the Beyond the Numbers conference) for five years. She was the editor of LiveWire, a quarterly publication, and she is author of numerous white papers on topics relevant to the senior and Boomer population.

Peter Whitehouse, M.D., PH.D.

Generation Reinvention 8: The Future of the Aging Brain

In his book The Myth of Alzheimer’s: What You Aren’t Being Told About Today’s Most Dreaded Diagnosis, Peter Whitehouse M.D., Ph.D. and his protégé, Daniel George, address the very foundation of our cultural and social relationships to the most dreaded disease of modern times.With more than 30 years of experience as a scientist and geriatric neurologist, Dr. Whitehouse, himself a Boomer, has been at the forefront of the evolution of the disease we call Alzheimer’s. He has earned over a million dollars consulting with pharmaceutical companies about development of cholinesterase inhibitors, the contemporary silver bullets in drug therapies for early treatment of disease symptoms.

David B. Wolfe

Generation Reinvention 9: The Future of Business, Ageless Marketing, and a Brave New Worldview

For over 25 years, the late David Wolfe was the most articulate and respected author and spokesman for Ageless Marketing and a paradigm shift toward understanding changing consumer needs as we age. David was an internationally recognized customer behavior expert in middle-age and older markets. Author and coauthor of three published books, including his breakaway Ageless Marketing, David was also a thought-leader in identifying shifting business values, a maturing, if you will, of the value companies and their products bring to our lives. His most recent work, an exciting and penetrating new book, investigates how society’s values are dramatically changing. Sadly, David passed away in December 2011, so this interview is one of his final reflections on his brilliant and enduring body of work.

Richard Adler

Generation Reinvention 10: The Next 20 Years

Richard Adler is the architect and leader of an important research study on Boomers for the Institute for the Future. Thirty years ago, he was appointed to a position at the Aspen Institute Program on Communications and Society, where he considered the potential of “pay television” to change the economics of TV programming, anticipating subscription networks like HBO that emerged a few years later. In the early 1980s, when new digital media were emerging, Richard joined the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit think tank in Silicon Valley, where he focused on the emergence of “online services.” In the mid-1980s, at a time when these services were being used by less than one percent of Americans, he was asked to provide a “vision” for the state of the technology in the year 2000. He predicted (correctly) that by 2000, half of all Americans would be online. This visionary has a lot to say about the next 20 years.

Tom Frey, Ph.D.

Generation Reinvention 11: The Next 20 Years, Part 2

Thomas Frey, Ph.D. is Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute, a futurist think-tank based near Boulder, Colorado. His blog on emerging technologies has been recognized by Popular Science magazine as one of the top five science blogs. He is the top-rated futurist speaker by Google. Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer. He is also a past member of the Triple Nine Society (High I.Q. society over 99.9 percentile).

Dick Stroud

Generation Reinvention 12: The Future of Boomer Aging in the United Kingdom

Dick Stroud is a consultant, lecturer, writer, and one of Great Britain’s most influential thinkers about the 50+ market niche. His company 20plus30 specializes in advising companies how to capture the buying power of 50-plus consumers. He is author of The 50-Plus Market, an impressive 315-page exploration of business with the lucrative, influential 50+ marketplace. He has taught at the London Business School, American University in London, and Southampton Business School. Before running his own company he worked for IBM and PA Management Consultants.

Dick Ambrosius

Generation Reinvention 13: Age Branding, Cognitive Fitness and the Future of Retirement Housing

In 1981, Dick Ambrosius formed one of the first consulting firms to specialize in marketing to middle age and older adults. This led to his selection as Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997 by Entrepreneur Magazine. In 1980, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the youngest member of the National Advisory Committee to the 1981 White House Conference on Aging, which he attended as a delegate and keynote speaker. In 2004, he was appointed as a delegate-at-large for the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. Today he serves as Vice President of Outreach and Group Programs for NeoCORTA Inc., which offers scientifically-designed assessments for future brain fitness and provides users with a road map to maintain or improve their future cognitive health.

Jeff Rosenfeld, Ph.D.

Generation Reinvention 14: Retirement Housing for the Boomer Future

Jeff Rosenfeld, Ph.D. is Director of the Gerontology Program and Gerontology Center at Hofstra University. He is a gerontologist with an interest in the interplay between aging and home-design. Along with Wid Chapman, he is the author of Home Design in an Aging World. His newest book, entitled Un-Assisted Living, also co-authored by Wid Chapman, will be published in the fall of 2011 by Random House. In addition to Hofstra University, Jeff teaches as an adjunct at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. He received his Ph.D. at Stony Brook.

Kim Walker

Generation Reinvention 15: Boomers and the Future of Aging in Asia Pacific Countries

Kim Walker is founder and CEO of SILVER, based in Singapore, the first strategic business and marketing consultancy in Asia Pacific focused on Boomers and 50+ consumers. Before founding SILVER, Kim has held local and regional C-suite positions in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, and Tokyo. He is Asia’s top expert on the 50+ market. Most recently he was President and CEO for M&C Saatchi in Asia. He has been a senior executive with Carat Asia Pacific and Bates Worldwide. He has launched new operations or led acquisitions in most Asian markets.

Mark Miller

Generation Reinvention 16: Boomers and the Future of Retirement Readiness and Security

Mark Miller is a journalist, author and editor who writes about trends in retirement and aging. He has a special focus on how the Baby Boomer Generation is revising its approach to careers, money and lifestyles after age 50. Mark edits and publishes RetirementRevised.com, featured as one of the best retirement planning sites on the web in the May 2010 issue of Money Magazine. Author of The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security, he also writes Retire Smart, a syndicated weekly newspaper column and also contributes weekly to Reuters.com.

Harry "Rick" Moody, Ph.D.

Generation Reinvention 17: Spiritual Journeys of Middle Age and the Future of Aging in America

Harry “Rick” Moody, Ph.D. understands implications of aging in ways that are both profound and practical. In his marvelous book entitled The Five Stages of the Soul: Charting the Spiritual Passages That Shape Our Lives, he reveals challenges and possibilities presented us as we age by focusing on the spiritual stages through which most of us pass. The outcome of careful spiritual exploration can be significant answers to deeper questions about the meaning of our lives. From a business perspective, Rick is Director of Academic Affairs for AARP in Washington, DC, where he has gained and contributed much practical wisdom about the social, economic and cultural aspects of aging today. He also serves as Senior Associate with the International Longevity Center-USA and Senior Fellow of Civic Ventures.

Marc Sotkin

Generation Reinvention 18: Laughing Our Way to A Spectacular, Incredible … Old Age

Marc Sotkin was formerly head writer for The Golden Girls. He began his writing career in 1976 and has been a staff writer and producer on more than 350 episodes of various situation comedies for every television network. His credits also include Laverne & Shirley, as well as co-writing and producing two Garry Shandling specials for Showtime. He has been honored with multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and Cable Ace award nominations and has won a prestigious Writers Guild Award. But this is a Boomer comedy writer who has reinvented himself. Presently, he appears in his weekly Boomer Alley videos. In addition he hosts Boomer Alley Radio which airs weekly in Los Angeles on CBS affiliate KFWB, across Colorado on the Radio Colorado Network, and is podcast to the universe.

Frank Lampe

Generation Reinvention 19: Boomers and the Future of Conscious Consumerism

Frank Lampe is one of the thought leaders in the healthy living / sustainability marketplace, so-called conscious consumerism or Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability (LOHAS). He brings more than 23 years of media and communications management experience to his role as director of communications with the American Herbal Products Association. As a co-founder of Natural Business Communications, he and his team introduced and quantified the LOHAS concept and produced the groundbreaking LOHAS Journal business magazine and the LOHAS Market Trends Conference. He was the editorial director at New Hope Natural Media, where he launched several trade titles, and is a former editor of Natural Foods Merchandiser.

Marti Barletta

Generation Reinvention 20: Marketing to PrimeTime Women and the Future of Business

Marti Barletta is the world’s foremost authority on marketing to women. She is the author of the groundbreaking book, Marketing to Women, which is now available in 15 languages, and co-author with Tom Peters of Trends (July 2005), who named her MVP/BizGuru of 2005. Her new book is PrimeTime Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders. In this book Marti breaks the story on the unprecedented buying power of women in their prime (ages 50-70) and details why this "silver bullet" segment is the prime source of business growth for the next two decades. As the recognized international authority on marketing to women, Marti is frequently quoted on CBS Evening News, ABC Money Matters, MSNBC's Squawk Box and NPR's Talk of the Nation, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fast Company, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur and many other publications worldwide.

Rob Kirkpatrick

Generation Reinvention 21: 1969 — a Tumultuous Year That Shaped the Boomer Future

Rob Kirkpatrick captured the concluding year of the sixties in a book entitled 1969: The Year Everything Changed. He has also written Magic in the Night: the Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen. Rob was a featured commentator in the History Channel documentary Sex in '69: The Sexual Revolution in America and has worked in the book publishing industry for more than a dozen years as an editor. He is also a blogger for Huffington Post.

Kathy Dragon

Kathy Dragon has more than two decades of experience in the Adventure and Experiential Travel industry including designing, marketing, selling, guiding and operating small group tours worldwide for active adults. She started leading bike tours in 1987, and she’s since trained hundreds of guides and tour operators on the nuances of understanding the North American PrimeTime Traveler (50-70 yr old) whose impact is substantial and whose needs and interests are unique within the global travel community. From Patagonia to Provence, Kilimanjaro to Komodo, Kathy has been there and personally escorted over 3000 guests (primarily Boomers) on life-changing adventures.

Bryan Welch

Bryan Welch and his family raise cattle, sheep, goats and chickens on a 50-acre farm, which they call Rancho Cappuccino. All their animals range freely, and the grazing animals are strictly grass-fed. When he’s not farming, he runs Ogden Publications, a diversified media, consulting and affinity marketing company. His company has grown rapidly over the past few years and now publishes 10 magazines for people interested in self-sufficiency, sustainability, rural lifestyles and farm collectibles. Familiar titles include Mother Earth News, Utne Reader, Natural Home and The Herb Companion. Combined, the publisher’s magazines have over 2-million readers, and their websites attract more than 3 million unique visitors each month.

J. Mara DelliPriscoli

J. Mara DelliPriscoli is President of Travel Learning Connections, Inc. She is the founder and architect of the Educational Travel Conference. With this conference platform she has facilitated the growth of strategic business partnerships and business-to-business networking of those in the field of alumni, museum, conservation and affinity group travel. With over 30 years experience in the tourism industry, Mara has directly worked in most sectors of the travel industry including marketing, sales, tour and hotel operations, and transportation, trade and government research firms. Mara is in a sense synonymous with educational travel, and with Boomers educational travel is the future.

Steve French

As Managing Partner at NMI, Steve French has over 25 years of marketing, consulting, and management experience across numerous industries. With his focus on healthy aging, wellness, and social sustainability, he works with many global clients on developing new business opportunities, strategic planning, and market research projects. He has pioneered a range of NMI consumer databases that analyze attitudes and behavior, including NMI’s Healthy Aging/Boomer Database. As a recognized industry expert, Steve’s expertise is also welcomed on a regular basis by global media. He is an author of numerous reports and articles, and he is a regular speaker at many industry events worldwide.

Dr. Bill Thomas

Dr. Bill Thomas is a visionary leader in the online Changing Aging movement and a renowned expert on geriatric medicine and eldercare. He is author of an award-winning examination of aging, entitled What Are Old People For?. His forthcoming, much-anticipated book on Boomer aging is entitled The Second Crucible. Recipient of numerous awards, including the Ashoka Fellowship, America’s Award, Heinz Award and Giraffe Award, Bill is also a professor at UMBC’s Erickson School of Aging, a musician, author of six books and an insatiable social media consumer and blogger.

Marc Middleton & Bill Shafer

A broadcast veteran, Marc Middleton spent 14 years as Sports Director and anchor at WESH-TV in Orlando before moving to the News Anchor Desk. Among his many assignments, Marc covered the Olympics in Barcelona, Sydney and Athens. Marc is an award-winning reporter whose work has been recognized with two Emmys, 5 Emmy Nominations, the Dupont Award for Excellence in Journalism, AP Sportscaster of the Year and two UPI Sportscaster of the Year awards. Marc also served as WESH’s technology reporter and helped produce the stations first-ever streaming Webcasts, blogs and podcasts.

Bill Shafer is co-host of Growing Bolder TV and the Growing Bolder Radio Show. A broadcast veteran considered one of America’s best storytellers, Bill has been one of Florida’s most honored journalists for nearly three decades. As news anchor, sports director and lifestyle reporter, he brought seemingly ordinary people to the forefront and proved everyone has a story. He has won countless national awards for his work. In his spare time, Bill is a youth ice hockey coach.

David Weigelt

David Weigelt co-founded Immersion Active, the only interactive agency in the United States solely focused on Boomers and seniors. In the spring of 2009, David, along with Immersion Active partner Jonathan Boehman, released his first book on how to engage mature consumers online through a developmental relationship marketing approach. Entitled Dot Boom: Marketing to Baby Boomers through Meaningful Online Engagement, the book has received praise from national and international marketing notables, including Microsoft, PBS, and AARP.

Arjan in't Veld

Generation Reinvention 29: Marketing and Advertising to Boomers and 50+ in Holland

Arjan in't Veld is founder and director of Bureauvijftig, a marketing and communications agency that specializes in 50+. (Bureauvijftig is Dutch for Agency Fifty.) Arjan graduated at Radboud University, Nijmegen, focusing on “Baby Boomer marketing.” In 2005, he was one of the first marketers addressing this niche in the Netherlands. Bureauvijftig is based in Utrecht and provides services for a variety of organizations: from Volkswagen and Thomas Cook, to the Academic Hospital and a local healthcare institute. His firm’s main focus is to translate 50+ consumer insights into successful marketing communication programs. Arjan is also cofounder and partner of a large healthcare portal for caretakers.

Marc Freedman

Generation Reinvention 30: Boomers and The Big Shift to a New Life Stage

Marc Freedman is CEO and founder of Civic Ventures, a think tank on Boomers, work and social purpose. He spearheaded creation of Experience Corps, now one of America’s largest nonprofit national service programs engaging people over 55, and The Purpose Prize, which annually provides five $100,000 prizes to social innovators in the second half of life. Author of newly released The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage beyond Midlife, Marc eloquently argues that it is now time for society and culture to embrace a new life stage between middle age and old age.

Todd Harff

Generation Reinvention 31: The Future of Integrated and Online Marketing to 50+ Consumers

Todd Harff brings a unique perspective to help clients achieve business results through his agency, Creating Results. In addition to his work with clients, Todd is a respected writer and featured speaker about marketing to the 50+ adult. He is a frequent contributor to industry publications. Todd has addressed regional and national conferences on a variety of topics related to marketing, advertising, website design and public relations.

Gary Moulton, Ph.D.

Gary Moulton, Ph.D. is a product manager in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group. He is responsible for the company’s strategic initiatives that focus on the use of technology by older adults (50+). In this role he is in charge of all efforts the company is making in the aging market segment. This includes product innovations for Baby Boomers. Prior to his current aging-related responsibilities he was the company’s assistive technology relations product manager. In this role he was responsible for coordinating Microsoft’s marketing efforts with assistive technology manufacturers, and he was the manager of Microsoft’s Assistive Technology Vendor Program.

B. Joseph Pine II

Joe Pine is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups. He is co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings. Joe and his partner Jim Gilmore wrote "The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage." Realizing that in a world of increasingly paid-for experiences people no longer accept the fake from the phony, but want the real from the genuine, so Pine & Gilmore wrote “Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want” in October 2007.

Dee Wallace

Generation Reinvention 34: Turning on Your Bright Light: Spiritual and Life Lessons for a Generation

Thirty years ago a gifted young actress from Kansas risked security and comfort to become part of the movie-making industry in Hollywood. Two years later she landed the role of a lifetime and walked onto a soundstage for Stephen Spielberg’s movie, “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.” Her character Mary, a smart, funny young mother, was about to change this actress’s life, as well as a generation’s views of modern motherhood. This heralded portrayal raised as many questions as it did answers for the rising star. In the three decades since her first day of work on the film, those questions have been answered. In her new book, Bright Light, Dee Wallace shares her touching story and wisdom that can help each of us rekindle and nurture the heartlight that guides us home to our true self.

Duncan Campbell

Generation Reinvention 35: A Consciousness Revolution for Boomers

Duncan Campbell holds degrees from the Sorbonne, Yale College and Harvard Law School. In the last 40 years he has gained extensive experience in the fields of psychology, philosophy, spirituality, law, business, finance, politics, communications and teaching. Duncan’s radio program, entitled Living Dialogues®, features conversations with consciousness pioneers — some known to a larger public and others lesser known or as yet unknown — yet all embodying the best in new paradigm thinking in a broad variety of fields.

Paul Kleyman

Generation Reinvention 36: A Journalist’s Look at Boomers and Aging

Paul Kleyman is the Director of the Ethnic Elders Newsbeat at New America Media (NAM), a division of Pacific News Service reaching 60 million ethnic audience members in the United States. From 1988 through 2008, he was the editor of Aging Today, a newspaper of the American Society on Aging. He co-founded and is National Coordinator of the Journalists Network on Generations and edits its e-newsletter, Generations Beat Online. He is also an invited blogger for The Huffington Post.

Helen Dennis

Helen Dennis calls upon Boomer and older women to shape a new kind of retirement, one that she refers to as “renewment” to emphasize the possibility of positive change, enlightenment, and adventure. Helen is a nationally recognized leader on issues of aging, employment and the new retirement. In the academic environment, she has received awards for her university teaching at the University of Southern California’s Davis School at the Andrus Gerontology Center.

Andy Cohen

Jack York

Generation Reinvention 38: Boomers and the Challenges and Opportunities of Caregiving

Andy Cohen is Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of Caring.com. He oversees the company’s operations and finances, with the goal of establishing Caring.com as the premiere website for people taking care of their parents and other aging loved ones. Andy has launched four successful web businesses, taking them from start-up to tens of millions of dollars in revenue. In a 20-year career before founding Caring.com, he held leadership positions in management, marketing, and sales with S.C. Johnson Wax, Intuit, Peapod, Instill, and SuccessFactors.

Jack York founded It’s Never 2 Late in the summer of 1999 after spending 14 years in the Silicon Valley. He retired from that industry as vice-president of strategic sales for Vishay Intertechnology. In 1998, he began donating computers to assisted living centers in California. This endeavor became a labor of love, and the enthusiasm that the seniors showed in jumping into the computer world motivated him to establish It’s Never 2 Late. Jack speaks internationally on how adaptive technology should be accessible to all older adults in senior living communities. It’s Never 2 Late specializes in constructing adaptive computer labs for older adults in all stages of life.

Ken Dychtwald

Generation Reinvention 39: Baby Boomers and the Transformational Power of the Age Wave

Dr. Ken Dychtwald is a leading expert on the ways that Baby Boomers are aging differently than any generation in history. He is widely regarded as North America’s foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing, healthcare and workforce implications of the age wave. He is a psychologist, gerontologist, documentary filmmaker, entrepreneur and best-selling author of sixteen books on aging-related issues, including Bodymind, Age Wave, Age Power, The Power Years and Workforce Crisis.

Steve Hoffman

Generation Reinvention 40: Boomer Consumers Living and Buying in the Natural World

Steve Hoffman is co-owner of Best Organics LLC, a leading organic gift company, and serves as chair of Naturally Boulder, an economic development initiative established by the City of Boulder to promote the growth of natural and organic businesses in the region. Steve is also cofounder of LOHAS Journal and the annual LOHAS Forum. He is the former national Marketing Director and Rocky Mountain regional Sales Manager for Arrowhead Mills. He served for more than eight years as the Editorial Director of Natural Foods Merchandiser, a leading trade magazine published by New Hope Natural Media and as Education Director for Natural Products Expo.

Michael Stusser and Chis MacInnes

Generation Reinvention 41: Boomers and the Future of the Spa Industry

Michael Stusser is founder of Osmosis, a popular spa in northern California. His discovery of the Cedar Enzyme Bath was a life-changing experience that led him to create Osmosis. This destination day spa has grown in twenty-five years into a nationally known hospitality location on five acres with extensive mediation gardens. Osmosis was recently acknowledged as “Americas Most Spiritual Spa” by Spirituality and Health magazine.

Christina MacInnes is Chief Operating Officer for Crystal Mountain Resort and Spa. Chris and her husband Jim have transformed this family-owned business into one of the Midwest’s premier four-season resort destinations. In addition, she is president of Crystal Properties Inc., the resort’s development company, and serves on its board of directors.

John L. Petersen

John L. Petersen has been widely recognized as one of the most informed futurists in the world. He is best-known for writing and thinking about high impact surprises—called wild cards—and the process of surprise anticipation. His current professional involvements include the development of sophisticated tools for anticipatory analysis, surprise anticipation, and helping leadership design new approaches for dealing with the future. An award-winning writer, Petersen’s first book, “The Road to 2015: Profiles of the Future” was awarded Outstanding Academic Book of 1995 by CHOICE Academic Review, and remained on The World Future Society’s best-seller list for more than a year. His latest book, “Out of the Blue: How to Anticipate Wild Cards and Big Future Surprises,” was also a WFS best-seller.

John Zweig

Generation Reinvention 43: Boomers and the Future of Healthcare, Aging and Marketing

John Zweig is Chairman of Healthcare and Specialist Communications for WPP. His role is to develop the Group’s capabilities and coordinate client services on behalf of WPP’s firms specialized by discipline, audience and industry. With a particular emphasis on healthcare clients, John provides access to these resources and capabilities around the world. Prior to becoming CEO of WPP’s Branding & Identity, Healthcare and Specialist Communications businesses, John was President of Thomas Ferguson Associates and founded CommonHealth in 1992; during the ten-year course of his leadership, he helped build CommonHealth into the largest and most respected integrated marketing firm of its type.

Chris Kilham

Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter, author and educator. The founder of Medicine Hunter Inc., he has conducted medicinal research in over 20 countries. He is the FOX News Medicine Hunter and appears on FOX News Health online in the US and international television markets. e is Explorer in Residence at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he teaches the popular ethnobotany course The Shaman’s Pharmacy through the Department of Plant & Soil Sciences. He has appeared as a guest expert on several hundred radio and television programs including news programs on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, FOX TV, and NPR. He has appeared as a guest on The Dr. Oz Show, and is a regular guest on FOX News Ask Dr. Manny.

Wendy Boglioli

Generation Reinvention 45: Boomers, the High Costs of Growing Old and Long-Term Care

Wendy Boglioli, a former Olympic swimmer and Gold Medalist, is a motivational speaker and spokeswoman for Genworth Financial. She is best known for winning the gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay in world record time at the 1976 Montréal. The gold was particularly crucial to the U.S. women’s team as it was the only gold medal awarded to American women during the games. Wendy then served as assistant coach of the Yale University Swim Team, before embarking on a career as a motivational speaker and spokesperson. In 1997, she entered the long-term care insurance field and currently serves as national spokeswoman for Genworth Financial’s Long Term Care Division.

Gary Zukav and Linda Francis

Generation Reinvention 46: Aging and the Search for Authentic Power and Spiritual Partnerships

Gary Zukav is the author of “The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics,” winner of The American Book Award for Science; “The Seat of the Soul,” the celebrated #1 New York Times bestseller; “Soul Stories,” also a New York Times bestseller; and many others. His books have sold millions of copies and are published in twenty-four languages. Gary has appeared on the Oprah show 35 times, more than any other guest.

Linda Francis has been practicing the creation of authentic power since she read “The Seat of the Soul” in 1989. In 1993 she met Gary Zukav and they created a spiritual partnership which is in its eighteenth year. During this time, she co-authored with Gary two New York Times bestsellers, “The Heart of the Soul: Emotional Awareness” and “The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice.” Linda has been in the healing profession for three decades, first as a registered nurse and then as a chiropractor.

Ed Tate

Generation Reinvention 47: Journey of a World Champion Public Speaker and Lessons for Boomers Reinventing

Ed Tate won the coveted Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking, finishing ahead of 175,000 members from 70 countries. To date, he has spoken professionally in 46 states, 12 countries and on five continents. Ed’s success in business has spanned more than two decades. Since 1998, Ed has been principal of Ed Tate & Associates, LLC, a professional development firm that provides keynote and endnote presentations and workshops, as well as in-person and do-it-yourself tools and expertise on Leadership, Executive Presentation Skills, The Challenges of Change, Management, and Sales Presentation Skills.

Matt Thornhill

Generation Reinvention 48: Boomer Consumers and Age Readiness for Business

Matt Thornhill started the Boomer Project, a marketing research and consulting firm to help marketers gain a better understanding of Boomer consumers. Insights based on the Boomer Project’s national surveys among Boomers have earned Matt an international reputation as an authority on marketing to Boomers. His first book, Boomer Consumer, co-written with his business partner, John Martin, was named one of the best business marketing books the year it was published. He writes several columns on Boomers for both online and traditional media. In addition, he edits and publishes a monthly newsletter on marketing to Boomers for over 6,000 subscribers.

Don Blauweiss and Chuck Schroeder

Generation Reinvention 49: Boomers, Advertising and the Real Mad Men

This time my guests are two creative talents who worked for the legendary Doyle Dain and Bernbach, the advertising agency credited for launching the Creative Revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s … the agency that influenced the creative direction of the Mad Men series.

Don Blauweiss began his career as a graphic designer, achieving international recognition for his package designs. Then he became an advertising Art Director at Doyle Dane Bernbach where he worked on historic and legendary campaigns for Volkswagen, Coffee of Colombia, Lufthansa, Uniroyal, and Avis.

Chuck Schroeder also started his career in the advertising business at Doyle Dane Bernbach as a copywriter working on Alka-Seltzer, Volkswagen, Polaroid, Mobil, American Airlines, Stroh’s Beer and other accounts.

Assaf Wand

Sabi, a health and wellness brand, manufactures and markets products that transform mundane daily chores — such as taking pills, taking out the trash, getting dressed, opening jars — into moments full of delight. The company has an eye toward the Boomer generation, anticipating growing preferences for these products as the generation ages. Assaf Wand is founder and CEO. He has been a venture capitalist at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Prior to that, he was Foris Telecom’s Vice President for Business Affairs. He has held senior roles with Arcadian Networks and McKinsey Consulting’s New York office where he consulted Fortune 100 clients.

Laurie Orlov

Generation Reinvention 51: Boomers and the Future of Aging and Adaptive Technologies

Laurie M. Orlov founded a popular website and blog several years ago entitled “Aging in Place Technology Watch.” She analyzes research and trends in the aging-in-place technology market, which includes technologies that help the elderly to remain in their home of choice. Laurie has 34 years of experience in the technology and market research industry, including nine years as an analyst, and she has been research director at Forrester Research. Laurie is also a certified Florida long-term care ombudsman and the author of “When Your Parents Need Elder Care: Lessons from the Front Lines.”

Ira Bahr

Generation Reinvention 52: The Future of Luxury Travel and the Boomer Generation

Ira Bahr is Chief Marketing Officer for Inspirato, a luxury destination club launched in January 2011, combining the advantages of independent luxury home rental with the personalized services and amenities of private luxury vacation clubs or resort hotels. He oversees customer acquisition, customer communications and channel marketing activities. Prior to joining Inspirato, Ira was the CMO at DISH Network, the third largest provider of pay television in the U.S. with more than 14 million subscribers. Previously, he served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Alliances and Communications at Sirius Satellite Radio.

Sara Qualls, Ph.D.

Dr. Sara Honn Qualls is a professor of psychology and aging studies and Director of the Gerontology Center at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She led the development of the doctoral program in clinical psychology that emphasizes Geropsychology. We’ll talk about geropsychology and its implications for you as a caregiver or for yourself as you age. She also helped found the CU Aging Center where students learn to provide mental health and family interventions for older adults. She founded a unique collaboration between UCCS and the Palisades at Broadmoor Park, a privately owned senior residential community, where faculty and students create cutting-edge wellness programs using innovative technologies.

Keith Famie

Generation Reinvention 54: Boomer Men and “The Embrace of Aging”

Executive Producer and Director Keith Famie is a nine-time Emmy Award winning filmmaker and founder of Visionalist Entertainment Productions, which he established in 1997. Keith is a renaissance man, with a rich history of entrepreneurial adventures. He began his career as a chef, lived in France, owned restaurants, and won food and wine awards. He became a celebrity chef on The Food Network and produced thirty-two segments of “Keith Famie’s Adventures.” He also ended up on “Survivor: The Australian Outback.” As testament to his tenacious personality, he was the last survivor voted off the show.

Doug Price

Generation Reinvention 55: Boomers, Public Television and Next Avenue

Next Avenue is a new national pubic media website that launched May 15, 2012 by PBS stations across America. It is focused on America’s growing 50+ population. My guest is Doug Price, who became president and chief executive officer of Rocky Mountain PBS in January 2009 and elected to the board of directors of the Public Television Major Markets Group. Prior to that, he had a successful career in banking with FirstBank Holding Company of Colorado. A 1978 graduate of the University of Colorado, he became president of the FirstBank of Boulder in 1982. He was promoted to president of FirstBank of Denver in 1988 and retired in 1999.

Louis Tenenbaum

As a carpenter and contractor, Louis Tenenbaum completed his first home access modifications in 1988. Excited by the significant impact he had on the family whose home he made accessible, Louis focused his design/build remodeling company on Aging in Place in the early 90s, which continues today. Today Louis speaks, writes and consults on Universal Design and Aging in Place for developers, builders, health professionals, communities and wide ranging business interests.

Joop Koopman

Joop Koopman is a multilingual writer, marketing and publishing professional with significant experience developing editorial content and marketing materials across multimedia channels and formats for institutional, corporate and non-profit clients. His expertise spans full range of media, including print, television and digital. Joop served as senior marketing, sales, research and editorial liaison for Plus Magazine, the leading magazine serving the 50 year-old+ audience in the Netherlands and other European countries.

Steve Demos

Steve Demos is the natural foods pioneer and visionary behind NextFoods and its GoodBelly brand. A progressive entrepreneur with more than 30 years experience in creating and marketing environmentally and socially-conscious foods, he is also the founder and former president of White Wave Inc., the largest producer and marketer of soy-based products in the U.S (Silk Milk Brand). He founded White Wave in 1977, where he led all aspects of strategic planning, operations, product conception and development, and branding until the company was sold to Dean Foods in 2005 for $296 million.

Jeff Zimman

Generation Reinvention 58: Cognitive Aging and Brain Training

Jeff Zimman is the co-founder and Chairman of Posit Science, the leading provider of brain fitness software. More than 60 articles in peer-reviewed science and medical journals have shown that the company’s patented technologies significantly increase processing speed, improve memory and attention, and enhance quality of life. Brain training can improve your overall mood and handling of daily activities such as driving.

Jed Diamond, Ph.D.

Jed Diamond, PhD, LCSW, is founder and director of MenAlive, a health program that helps men live long and well. He has been a licensed psychotherapist for over 45 years and is the author of ten books including the international best-selling “Male Menopause” that has thus far been translated into 24 languages. Jed’s newest book, “MenAlive: Stop Killer Stress with Simple Energy Healing Tools,” brings together the wisdom accumulated in 40 years helping more than 20,000 men, women, and children.

Leonard Steinhorn

Generation Reinvention 60: In Defense of the Boomer Legacy

Leonard Steinhorn is a full-time professor of Public Communication at American University. His expertise includes American politics, culture and media, strategic communication, the presidency, and recent American history. He is author of “The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy,” and co-author of “By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race.” He has published in books, journals, the Washington Post, Salon, Politico, and International Herald Tribune, among others. Steinhorn was twice named AU Faculty Member of the Year. He serves as political analyst for FOX-5 News in Washington, DC. Before joining the AU faculty, he spent 15 years as a political consultant and speechwriter.

Chip Conley

In 1987, at age 26, Chip Conley started Joie de Vivre (JDV), a hospitality company based in San Francisco. He began by transforming a squalid 1950′s Tenderloin District motel into Phoenix Hotel, a celebrated rock ‘n’ roll destination catering to celebrities such as David Bowie, the Rolling Stones and Nirvana. JDV then expanded into a collection of nearly 40 award-winning hotels, restaurants and spas, with more than 3,000 employees — with each property conveying a unique persona often influenced thematically by a popular magazine. He is author of several business books. His most recent New York Times best-seller is entitled “Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success.”

David Browne

Generation Reinvention 62: Boomers, Rock Music and the Lost Story of 1970

David Browne has written an impressive recounting of 1970 in the context of four classic albums that dominated Billboard charts and ran neck-and-neck that year for popularity. His recently published book is entitled “Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970.”

October 05, 2012

“After 40 years of catering to younger consumers, advertisers and media executives are coming to a different realization: older people aren’t so bad, after all.”

So goes the lead to a recent New York Times article about a marketing transformation underway. Suddenly the venerable newspaper has produced an article that unambiguously acknowledges what the marketing industry has been way-too-slow to accept: “older people,” namely Baby Boomers, are too lucrative to ignore even though over 80% of the generation has aged beyond the traditional marketing and media sweet spot of adults 18 to 49.

Halleluiah!

The Times article makes a point that this shift in mainstream thinking among media and advertising agencies is due to two factors: demographics and economics. Not only does the Boomer generation still evoke the metaphor of a “pig in a python” — its dominant population slice — members of this generation have far more to spend on a discretionary basis — 20% more on average in weekly earnings than the coveted 25 – 34 demo.

And older consumers spend on categories once thought the domain of youthful consumers. As TheTimes article insists, “Mature consumers also seem to be spending on categories not traditionally associated with older people. NBC’s study of those people 55 to 64 showed that they spent more than the average consumer on categories like home improvement, large appliances, casual dining and cosmetics.”

Revolutionary!

These are insights and conclusions many of us in the “marketing to Boomers” arena have been writing and speaking about for years — a decade in some instances. For many of us, The Times article comes across with about as much newsworthiness as if the newspaper was trumpeting the importance of segmentation in marketing. We have known with zero uncertainty that Boomers would bring to their aging a new style of lucrative consumerism. Some did not know that The Great Recession would give Boomers a distinctive economic advantage over younger cohorts, but this has happened too.

So, what is important about this article and what is missing?

Robert Dilenschneider, formerly CEO of public relations agency Hill & Knowlton, has written many worthwhile books about business communications. One of his notable books is Power and Influence. He makes a very strong argument that a handful of media in the nation shape and dominate the national conversation. The New York Times serves a unique role in setting the national agenda, as does The Wall Street Journal. When The Times covers a story, the story gains validity, further influencing lesser magazines and newspapers, shaping their choices of topics. Broader media coverage inevitably shapes mainstream thinking.

Indeed, though it has been a long time coming, an article in the Times with a mind-shifting headline — “In Shift, Ads Try to Entice Over-55 Set” — can be construed as definitive breakthrough. Those of us who have been writing, ranting, proselytizing, and prodding media to recognize reality can finally rest: message delivered and received.

And what is missing?

We can expect a business article to make a business argument: dominant demographic size plusdisproportionately higher incomeequalsa market mandating attention. Yet, behind this argument is a larger issue, making money notwithstanding.

The generations over age 45 are inexorably changing aging, so much so, and in such a pervasive and positive manner, that the structure of our culture and social order is becoming something it has never been before. As Dr. Ken Dychtwald, author of Age Wave, has been insisting for over two decades, Boomers don’t just populate life stages, they transform them.

My friend Susan at age 45 had her first healthy twin babies. My friend David started a thriving home healthcare agency several months before turning 60. My friend Lou leads two of the hottest, most progressive rock ‘n’ roll radio stations in Colorado at age 70. And so it goes for the breakdown of what’s normal and expected.

Dr. Bill Thomas, geriatrician and profound thought leader on the future of aging, suggests that aging is its own opportunity for business to consider. “The development of a new perspective on age and aging is both necessary and possible,” writes Dr. Thomas. “Given the importance of aging in our lives, and the impact of aging on our families and society, a new openness and even curiosity about human aging would seem more than warranted. The time has come for our wondrous longevity to emerge from the long shadow cast by the vigor and virtues of youth.”

Boomer demographic dominance and economic might have now become self-evident and mainstream thought, thanks in part to the power of influence embedded in The New York Times. What’s lacking in this discussion is a third pillar of value: that older consumers are more than consumers; that age is more than decline; that an emerging elderhood will change nations.

Older consumers represent an unprecedented human asset worthwhile for business to cultivate, market size and economics notwithstanding. Our collective thoughts and actions as an “age cohort” will create new markets for goods and services while revitalizing others. We will empower brands like never before as brands become associated with maturity, wisdom, judgment, holistic thinking, generativity, longevity and actualization of human potential across the lifespan.

But I suspect it could take another ten years before the marketing and media communities fully grasp transformative implications of an aging society, one that will continue to manifest new dimensions as Generation X and then Generation Y cross that timeworn media delineation between age 49 and 50.

Rather, marketers and media will remain stuck in old arguments and beliefs: that the ultimate value of human existence is exoneration of youth to the exclusion of age. They will grudgingly revise their marketing plans to follow the money, just as The New York Times instructs, but they won’t buy into aging as a value unto itself. Many people inhabiting these fields won’t embrace their own aging because denial runs deep and vigorous, especially in these professions.

Right now the best way to manifest an emerging new sociology of aging and age inclusiveness is to buy stuff they didn’t expect us to buy and engage with media programming they didn’t expect us to consume.

June 20, 2012

LOHAS is an acronym for Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability, a values-driven consumer cohort identified in the late 1990s. Consumers described as LOHAS are passionate about sustainability, health and wellness, personal development, resource conservation, corporate responsibility, social justice, and natural and organic products. They annually purchase $350 billion in goods and services worldwide.

According to the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI), a Pennsylvania-based company that annually conducts original research examining this segment, LOHAS consumers comprise 18 percent of the U.S. population. The Boomer generation over-represents this segment: 21 percent of Boomers are also LOHAS consumers.

Steve French, executive vice president and managing partner of NMI, emphasizes a significant correlation between LOHAS and post-50 consumers:

“Many Americans reached adulthood in the 1960s and 1970s during the emergence of a global environmental awareness and greater focus on personal health, and they maintain those same values today. The major difference today is that they have considerable financial resources and commitment to search for and buy products and services that serve their long-term environmental and health goals.”

LOHAS leaders, natural products entrepreneurs and corporate executives gather every June in Boulder, Colo., for an intense three-day Forum. This intimate conference blends presentations from personal development educators, academicians exploring the edges of sustainable technologies, corporate pioneers who have embraced LOHAS values, and inspirational entertainers.

Representing widely diverse industries and age groups, attendees nevertheless share a passion for creating a healthier, more sustainable future. For example, one post-50 speaker at the 2012 Forum is busy teaching new conceptions of corporate leadership, insights he achieved through much personal distress and soul-searching.

In 1987, at age 26, Chip Conley started Joie de Vivre (JDV), a hospitality company based in San Francisco. He began by transforming a squalid 1950's Tenderloin District dive into Phoenix Hotel, a celebrated rock 'n' roll destination catering to celebrities such as David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt and Nirvana.

JDV then expanded into a collection of more than 35 award-winning hotels, restaurants and spas, with more than 3,000 employees -- with each property conveying a unique persona often influenced thematically by a popular magazine.

Bounding onto a general session stage, he announced: “What I've learned in 25 years of being a CEO, from a startup to growing into a big company, is that we as leaders are the emotional thermostats of the groups that we lead.”

Chip then disrobed, literally and figuratively. After stripping off his business suit onstage to reveal a runner's outfit underneath, he shared several moving stories about his recent trials, similar in essence to challenges experienced by many post-50 adults because of aging: with advancing age often comes loss and illness.

His struggling company almost ran out of money during the 2008 economic downturn. His son was wrongly incarcerated for eight months in San Quentin. A long-term loving relationship ended, and his closest friend, also named Chip, committed suicide. He felt anguish in his heart, imprisoned by the responsibilities of being a CEO. While giving a speech in Saint Louis about self-actualization, his heart stopped beating. An EMT's cardiac monitor projected a grim prognosis: his heart flat-lined eight more times.

In his travel backpack he had carried a book titled Man's Search for Meaning, written by the influential 20th century psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Dr. Viktor Frankl. While reading this book during recovery, Chip came upon a poignant passage:

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. And in our response lies our glory and our freedom.”

Chip then experienced an epiphany: suffering is part of the human condition; live long enough and afflictions will come. But then he understood his first emotional equation: despair equals suffering minus meaning. Thus, while meaning does not stop suffering, it can ameliorate despair, as Dr. Frankl discovered in the horrific Nazi concentration camps.

For 24 years Chip Conley performed successfully as a CEO, and that responsibility almost killed him because he was distraught about executing his duties. But underneath the suit was a human being full of emotions. And he finally realized that Chief Executive Officers are really Chief Emotions Officers. CEOs are the emotional thermostats for the people they lead.

Effective leaders make a difference by understanding what's going on under the surface; they allow themselves to emotionally strip away protective layers. As Dr. Abraham Maslow, founder of humanistic psychology and creator or the famous “hierarchy of needs,” wrote in his diary: “Great leaders create great psycho-hygiene.” Thus, leaders are responsible for creating organizational catharsis. And the best of them share daily gratitude with employees for minor accomplishments and company milestones.

At the LOHAS Forum, Chip Conley conveyed intuitive emotional equations that can guide present and future CEOs. And in doing so, this “undressed speaker” modeled resilience typical of those who have been tested, gained wisdom, and become resolute to transfer survival insights across generations.

His lessons are about a new conscious capitalism emerging from the LOHAS movement, fostering egalitarian leadership with a focus on stakeholders -- creating organizations to serve the self-actualizing and health-seeking quest of values-driven consumers.

Jessica Rao, the article’s author, argues “because of severe recession and stock market losses, Boomers have less to spend, and further they’re entering a post-career life stage when they will reduce spending anyway.”

While this story may be accurate in aggregate—overall national economic growth may decline from loftier times 15 years ago, due to many factors including global competition—it misses myriad nuances of the Boomer future.

In lockstep with Boomer aging, established industries are about to grow exponentially, and enterprises yet to be conceived will create new wealth. Some interviewed for the article acknowledge that “experience industries” such as travel will see a boost, but this cannot be diminished as an aside. When Boomers focus their wealth on shared goals, such as the need to see the world before they die, billions of dollars will follow. Generation Reinvention will answer unrequited dreams notated on countless bucket lists. Travel and tourism-related expenditures will grow dramatically. Thousands of entrepreneurial businesses will emerge.

For example, the National Geographic Society has developed a series of catered tours called Expeditions. These precisely engineered adventures emphasize learning, and many of the Society’s preeminent experts escort guests on their journeys.

Recreational Equipment Incorporated also showcases appealing travel experiences across the nation and throughout the world. So does Road Scholar, an innovative brand reformulation introduced last year by the former Elder Hostel, primarily to accommodate peripatetic Boomers.

Beyond travel we can expect expansion in other industries aligned with an aging population. The CNBC.com article identifies healthcare for obvious reasons: an aging generation needs more medical care for diseases and disabilities related to aging. But the article doesn’t address explosive developments in “age management” industries.

Most in this generation share a wish technically known as “compression of morbidity.” They want more than just life expansion; they hope to stay healthy and active until the end and then quickly pass away. A keystone Boomer value, left over from the seventies’ human potential movement, is self-empowerment, and a burgeoning age-management industry squarely addresses this value.

Just as the Salk vaccine diminished and then all-but eradicated polio when Boomers were children, emerging genetic and nanorobotics technologies promise extraordinary new methods to compress morbidity in aging. Most pharmaceutical companies already embrace this opportunity. That’s why they have more than 400 drugs under development to tackle aging, with Viagra being a noteworthy and welcome early innovation.

Intel, the legendary computer chip manufacturer, is among a growing list of companies developing products to help people stay in their homes and avoid assisted care facilities or nursing homes. Intel has recently formed a strategic alliance with GE; these two technology and innovation giants are now also focusing on age adapative technologies through an initiative called Care Innovations.

Not only do aging-in-place technologies have important implications for quality-of-life, they can reduce national healthcare costs. Forrester Research has projected that in-home medical monitoring, just one facet of this burgeoning industry, could reach $34 billion by 2015 as the leading edge of the generation approaches age 70.

Boomers might not buy as many second homes as once thought, but they’ll downsize and right size. Many will buy cutting-edge retirement homes in active-aging neighborhoods yet to be conceived. They’ll embrace new urban lifestyles in big cities. They’ll be early adopters of communities wired for the future and nostalgically reminiscent of the past. They’ll refurnish their lives while reducing clutter—another emerging industry.

They might reduce spending on luxury products, but Boomers have always found ways to justify luxuries that match their stage-of-life passions. A luxury necklace is more than a fashion statement when a grandmother buys it as a future heirloom for her granddaughter.

They might stop buying Mercedes automobiles, as speculated in the article, but an enterprising car manufacturer will develop the ideal vehicle to fulfill Boomer driving aspirations in later life. The Volkswagen Beetle became a metaphor for their road-tripping youth, and the Chrysler minivan became the soccer-mom brand when they were raising families. An imaginative “third-age” vehicle, designed to compensate for sensory deficits with cool technologies and universal design, will punctuate their automotive driving future.

Those who warn of Boomer economic catastrophes often look at the future through the rearview mirror. I propose that the Boomer future is robust with opportunities. Not only is Generation Reinvention changing aging, reshaping their post-career years to be expansive, engaged, and vital, this generation is setting the stage for younger generations to one day receive greater economic and social opportunities in their aging.

Will some businesses lose money because Boomers are aging? Yes. Will some businesses make fortunes because Boomers are aging? Count on it.

Strategic Implications

The future is always fraught with uncertainties, but it’s not reaching too far to conclude that trillions of dollars will be made and spent in the next few decades by a generation that has shaped the consumer economy for the last 40 years. Boomers are going to transform traditional industries focused on mature consumers. They will influence innovation of entirely new industries, whether bricks and mortar or online.

Their imprint on commercial enterprises and nonprofit organizations will endure beyond them. Younger generations will come to accept as normative many new, robust, and egalitarian conceptions of aging as Boomers transform everything in their paths, from housing, health care, and home-based services, to tourism, transportation, and traditions associated with aging. The significant uncertainties in this economic forecast reside in three questions:

• What are you going to do about it?• How will you be part of this transformation? • Will you profit from the forthcoming revolutions in consumerism and the sociology of aging?

The above essay is an edited excerpt from Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging and the Future. This 279-page book explores a growing body of research, arguments, insights, and speculation over how Boomers are impacting aging and commerce. Implications from my book are monetary and personal, local and international, intergenerational and multicultural. To learn why these conclusions are significant for your work and future, you can get a copy from online book retailers, including Amazon. Thank you for following my blog and, of course, your interest in Generation Reinvention.

February 21, 2012

Following a recent resurgence of business interest in Boomers as a market niche, aging or not, companies targeting them have become more sophisticated at developing communications that tap into amorphous and dynamic values that accompany generational affiliation and stage-of-life. A renaissance of generational focus is not an accident. Substantial profits have been made in recent years by marketers who have cracked the Boomer marketing code with effective segmentation and creative branding strategies.

For example, prominent advertisers established in the “aging industry” have redesigned their dusty marketing campaigns that once-upon-a-time focused generically on older adults without a sense of generational nuance. From Viagra to Touch of Grey for Men, advertisers have dressed up marketing communications with the goal of communicating, “We’re not about old people. We’re interested in you, the vital, experience-seeking Boomer generation.”

Consider how pharmaceutical advertising has changed during the last few years in an era of consumer-driven healthcare. Recall growth of financial services marketing that targets Boomers with products ranging from 401(k) accounts to lifetime annuities in an era of self-directed investing. Reflect upon all the classic rock music in music beds of newer ad campaigns.

I’ve observed erectile dysfunction medications transform from primarily a way to manage diseases that affect sexuality to becoming a performance enhancer almost any man can find pleasure in using. Viagra advertisements morphed from featuring GI Generation spokesman and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to showcasing a garage band of Boomer musicians covering Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas” as “Viva Viagra.”

I’ve seen former Beatle Paul McCartney remind those who admired him in youth that it’s not over yet and to “Never Stop Doing What You Love,” a powerful, optimistic message sponsored by Fidelity Investments. Not to be outdone, Ameriprise Financial ran an aggressive television ad campaign for over a year showcasing historical film montages of young Boomers accompanied by a music bed from classic rocker Steve Winwood: “Gimme Some Lovin,” a chart-topping hit from his Spencer Davis Trio days.

I’ve watched a marketing campaign for Dove soap transform women over a certain age into aspirational models, morphing anti-age into Pro Age. I’ve studied how Del Webb advertisements have evolved to showcase Boomers in pursuit of the good life through active lifestyle communities, instilling additional home value through community engagement and lifelong learning. And I have observed how newer contemporary national and international tourism advertisements appeal to Boomers’ emerging thirst for deeper learning while traveling.

Thousands of marketers now agree that generational marketing works amazingly well as long as communications have been constructed with sophisticated insights and authentic production nuances.

The Critics, They Are a’Chargin’

In business and marketing there are always segment naysayers. Some in this marketplace of selling ideas believe Boomers have become fatigued as a consumer segment and it is all downhill from here. Others believe that targeting a generational segment is not a meaningful or effective segmentation strategy.

“Baby Boomers have peaked,” commented investment manager Harry Dent, author of one book lacking accurate prescience, The Roaring 2000s. “They’re going to slow the economy down for the next 12 to 14 years.”

Dent and others who share his views may be missing some essential points about the Boomer generation. From a historical perspective, this generation has always represented a fountain of opportunity for those who are good at predicting what is important to Boomers.

As Steve Gillon observed: “In 1958 Life magazine called children the ‘Built-in Recession Cure,’ concluding that all babies were potential consumers who spearheaded ‘a brand-new market for food, clothing, and shelter.’”

Boomers are today’s built-in recession cure. They constitute a market force largely unabated by economic recession or the aging process. Boomers are the future of many product categories, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, anti-aging therapies, retirement housing, continuing education, luxury and educational travel, online social networking, consumer and aging-in-place technologies, financial services, consumer packaged goods, many categories of durable goods, purchases for grandchildren, home renovations, and so forth.

Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., author of Age Waveand Age Power, succinctly describes the value of Boomers to the future of business: “When they reach any stage of life, the issues that concern them—whether financial, interpersonal, or even hormonal—become the dominant social, political, and marketplace themes of the time. Boomers don’t just populate existing life stages or consumer trends, they transform them.”

Reacting to an article in Brandweek, also claiming that the Boomer market is on a swift decline while calling for new focus on younger generations, advertising executive Brent Bouchez commented, “This article couldn’t be more off-base. While Boomer spending may have slowed during the last two years, it’s all relative. The fact remains that in the United States people over age 50 represent only 30 percent of the population, but more than half of all consumer spending. Before you put all your eggs in the youth basket, take a look at the numbers and do a bit of math. You’ll find that people over age 50 drive today’s economy, whether up or down. Ninety million people with full wallets and low-balance credit cards are a lot of consumers to ignore. The 50+ cohort controls 75% of the wealth in this country, earns $2.3 trillion annually compared to $1 trillion for the 18-34 group, and they stand to inherit between $14 and $20 trillion over the next 20 years.”

Perhaps Boomers have peaked in their combined spending power across all business categories relative to the late 1990’s when most were in their peak earning years, but aging creates new opportunities for many of the nation’s most critical industries. Plus, substantial market research consistently demonstrates that Boomers are not brand loyal, as myths about aging would have it. They are as brand experimental as their children. They will continue to try new products and sample new lifestyles long into the future.

Nielsen, the goliath global research company, added an exclamation point to this argument. In a July 2010 Marketing Daily article, reporter Sarah Mahoney interviewed Doug Anderson, Nielsen’s SVP of research and development. Anderson’s research conclusions are thought-worthy:

Nielsen’s research says Boomers dominate 1,023 out of 1,083 consumer packaged goods categories, and watch 9.34 hours of video per day—more than any other segment. They also comprise a third of all TV viewers, online users, social media users and Twitter users, and are significantly more likely to have broadband Internet.

“Marketers have this tendency to think the Baby Boom—getting closer to retirement—will just be calm and peaceful as they move ahead, and that’s not true. Everything we see with our behavioral data says these people are going to be active consumers for much longer. They are going to be in better health, and despite the ugliness around the retirement stuff now, they are still going to be more affluent,” Anderson says. “They are going to be an important segment for a long time.”

The critics of Boomer business value are simply wrong.

The above essay is an edited excerpt from Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging and the Future. This 279-page book explores a growing body of research, arguments, insights, and speculation over how Boomers are impacting aging and commerce. Implications from my book are monetary and personal, local and international, intergenerational and multicultural. To learn why these conclusions are significant for your work and future, you can get a copy from online book retailers, including Amazon. Thank you for following my blog and, of course, your interest in Generation Reinvention.

December 03, 2011

Most of us consider ourselves lucky if we find a single mentor early in life — someone who has the wisdom and compassion to lead us closer to our dreams, talents and values. It is even rarer to discover a mentor later in life who nudges us to reconsider where we’ve come from and where we’re heading next.

One man I first met just eight years ago had an influence on me that changed the way I pursued a marketing career fettered by twentieth-century baggage. His name is David B. Wolfe, and he finished his work and gave us his final gifts during this lifetime on Saturday, December 3, 2011.

The best way I can honor David’s memory is to tell you how he influenced my thinking, as he has countless other colleagues worldwide.

As a young advertising executive I had three demographic priorities as I planned campaigns and made media buys: adults 18 to 34, adults 18 to 49, and adults 25 to 54.

These arbitrary, age-based segmentations meant more investments in younger markets because most believed that the value of older consumers falls with rising age. Traditionally, post-50 consumers faded from marketers’ radar screens altogether, except of course for age-specific products addressing health deficiencies due to aging such as Geritol and Depends.

Today, youth-dominated marketing has become increasingly counterproductive. The 25-to-44-age cohort, which spends most per capita on automobiles, housing and housing related products, shrank by 4.3 million people in the first decade of the new century. People 40 and older now outnumber 18-to-39-year olds by 138 million to 87 million.

Then along came David.

For over 25 years, he has been an articulate and respected author and spokesman for Ageless Marketing and a paradigm shift toward understanding changing consumer needs as we age. David stood among a handful of thought leaders who recognized the idiosyncrasies of customer behavior in middle-age and beyond — those who understood the economic potential of older consumer segments. He then provoked innovative thinking about marketing to older adults through two seminal books: Serving the Ageless Market and Ageless Marketing.

David was also a visionary in identifying shifting business values paralleling population aging, a maturing, if you will, of the value that companies and their products bring to our lives. He brilliantly expressed these insights as coauthor of the influential business book, Firms of Endearment.

His most recent book, Brave New Worldview, investigates how society’s values are dramatically changing as a result of underlying trends of aging demographics and psychosocial maturation of the human species. For one, we’re finally learning to think with both hemispheres of our brains, an evolutionary change that may be fundamental to survival of humankind.

Because of loving assistance from friends and colleagues in The Society, a mature marketing think group David cofounded with Dick Ambrosius in 1993, this book will be published soon. It is noteworthy and characteristic that David devoted all his diminishing energy to finishing this book, editing and polishing up to and including the final day of his life.

David will be missed by many colleagues and friends worldwide. Yet his legacy will live on for generations. And every person reading this homage can pay tribute to the memory of a cheerful and thoughtful man by recognizing and elevating the economic and societal importance of aging consumer markets.

Among all the accomplishments of his lifetime, David will be remembered as an articulate and forceful friend for the ages.

Note: It was my privilege to interview David a few months before he passed away. You can get a copy of this podcast featuring David’s final reflections about his work, his books and his values by sending me an email request.

July 12, 2011

The 2011 LOHAS Forum continued a 16-year tradition by gathering thought leaders and speakers from across the green, sustainability, natural, and organic sectors.

LOHAS is an acronym for Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability, a market segment representing one in five U.S. consumers—those who are passionately focused on health and fitness, the environment, natural and organic products, personal development, sustainable living, and social justice.

This powerhouse conference illuminates the LOHAS market and reveals insights not otherwise accessible. The Forum delivers an organic energy that infuses attendees with deeper comprehension and commitment to values connected with human health and long-term environmental sustainability.

This year during the June 22 – 24 conference, staged at the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder, Colorado, a unifying message from many speakers focused on the urgency of now: a sense that this is the time for bold action to avoid cataclysmic consequences, whether introduced by population growth, climate change or declining oil reserves.

Ted Ning, Executive Director, LOHAS

Their concerns and cautious warnings also became tempered by optimism. Most of the visionaries expressed hopefulness that our species can transcend current threats, leading us toward a healthier, more humanistic future.

Steve French and Gwynne Rogers of the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) emphasized that the Boomer generation is today’s priority target for those marketing green and natural/organic products.

“The LOHAS market, regardless of market sector or geography, is driven by an older consumer,” said Steve French. “In the U.S. and Western Europe, it’s the Baby Boomers.

“They’re voting with their money as they control the nation’s wealth: $3.2 trillion dollars in spending power. Boomers over-index as LOHAS consumers. They’re the most passionate about sustainable agriculture, protecting the environment, and using renewable energy. Their attitudes translate into behavior as measured by actual product purchases.”

The LOHAS movement continues to be embellished and honored by stalwart consumer brands, with 2011 conference representation from significant companies such as Whole Foods, Silk Milk, Coca Cola, New Belgium Brewery, Mohawk, Ogden Publications, and Patagonia. Yet, opportunities remain for growth of corporate engagement among other leading companies that have driven stakes into the LOHAS market, such as General Electric, Starbuck’s, Wal-Mart, Best-Buy, General Motors, and Johnson & Johnson.

Future LOHAS Forums can host and educate more executives from larger corporations and nonprofits dedicated to health and sustainability consumers. These values-driven stakeholders are the future, and, as NMI research has demonstrated many times, LOHAS consumers are shaping mainstream value consensus.

Here, then, are some of the speakers and thought leaders who attended the 2011 LOHAS Forum, with excerpts from their presentations.

Dr. Jean Houston, Founder, Human Potential Movement

“We are now a geological force not simply a human force. We have changed the shape of the world, right now for worse – soon, as we all wake up, for much, much better. So we are being re-scaled to planetary proportions. And the earth within us gives us the corollary and wisdom to know our place and our tasks in this era of stupendous, stupendous change. And the mutations of present time seem to be asking no less than the immediate transmutation or radical growth of ourselves. I’m addressing you, dear friends, as passionate practitioners of world making.”

Terry Kellogg, CEO, 1% for the Planet

“An amazing thing happened when the film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ came out. It was just enough in terms of a bump in overall awareness levels and appetite to engage on the part of customers. It totally changed the context in which we were operating. And it made possible all kinds of innovations.”

Chris Kilham, Founder, Medicine Hunter

“This is our time. It’s a time that requires boldness; it’s a time that requires tremendous energy. It’s a time that requires that we throw ourselves into this positive work … this humanity, with the fullness and total capability of everything that we can bring to the table.”

Steve French, Managing Partner, Natural Marketing Institute

“The greenest product you can buy is the one you don’t buy. ‘Shopping our way to sustainability’ is inherently an oxymoronic statement. Almost half the U.S. population is mending and fixing things now. Seven out of ten consumers are really thinking deeper about whether they need to buy the thing that they’re buying.”

Dan Millman, Author, The Peaceful Warrior

“I ended up teaching an approach to living with a peaceful heart, acknowledging that we’re all striving to live with a peaceful heart, but there are times we need a warrior’s spirit. Because it takes courage to live in this world, to love in this world, to raise children in this world, to start a new business in this world. That’s what I mean by the term peaceful warrior: peaceful heart, warrior’s spirit.

“There are only two things we have to do in life: we have to die someday and we have to live until we die. But all the rest we make up based on our choices.”

John Peterson, Founder, Arlington Institute

“Remember the first law of discordianism: convictions cause convicts. Whatever you believe imprisons you. Open yourself up to this amazing time of transition and this amazing new world that we’re moving into. Build this new world; become these new humans.”

Casey Sheanan, CEO, Patagonia

“What is Conscious Leadership? It’s the energy and attitudes you project to others. The words you say can have a positive or negative effect on those around you. Leaders who learn to unlock the power of this can be very effective because they can shift entire organizations very quickly. I believe there is no global transformation possible without personal transformation. It starts with us.”

Finally, Dr. Jean Houston, the remarkable and articulate founder of the Human Potential Movement, emphasized importance of post-menopausal women to LOHAS, representing 70% to 80% of its stewardship. During a separate interview with me she provided further thoughts about the critical role of Boomer women.

“Among Baby Boomer women I’m seeing a heightened sense of response-ability. They know that they’re going to live much longer lives. There is a rising mythos – that they are part of this larger story and have been given challenges that have never been there before in human history, called the earth herself. A lot of these women have depth, education and sense of purpose and feel profoundly called to make a difference. Many of these Boomer women are rising up, and without fanfare they are taking responsibility.”

February 23, 2011

News media have been contemplating implications of the oldest Baby Boomers turning 65 this year. This is a symbolic passage but nevertheless thought worthy. Around 10,000 will reach the milestone daily for the next nineteen years. Never has the nation dealt with population aging of this magnitude.

As critics see it, Boomer aging represents a dark cloud, a generational storm gathering over the social safety net. Detractors employ disquieting language such as “predicament,” “sinking ship,” and “unsustainable.” In Boomer vernacular, you might just call it a bummer.

But the facts speak to a different vision of the future. This generation is proffering unprecedented growth prospects for states and cities that envision and embrace economic development potential.

Since the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, Colorado’s delegates to the decennial forum have been meeting to create a strategic plan and organizational framework for aging called Silverprint Colorado. Their current goals are specific, but their vision is farsighted: to help Colorado become the leading state in the nation to embrace opportunities of an aging population.

Other states are addressing the Boomer aging opportunity by organizing initiatives similar to Silverprint, with civic and business leaders forging creative public and private partnerships to “ride the age wave.” Virginia’s Older Dominion Partnership is noteworthy for its momentum.

I was keynote speaker recently for the The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, and over 200 business executives and civic leaders crowded into this half-day workshop, eager to understand possibilities. Sarasota is actively retooling its brand and amenities to better accommodate the Boomer age wave, thereby strengthening its position as one of the nation’s most desirable retirement locations. A majority of attendees are also involved either directly or indirectly in nonprofits.

And the timing couldn’t be better. A generation of social and business innovators has matured, reaching a life-stage typically dedicated to creating legacies. According to a recent study by Convio and Edge Research, Boomers on average give $901 to 5.2 charities annually.

Now, consider a macroeconomic perspective. People over age 50 represent 30 percent of the population nationwide, but they own 65 percent of the aggregate net worth of all U.S. households. Boomers earn $2.6 trillion annually to spend on goods and services, far exceeding any other generational cohort. They control $28 trillion of the nation’s assets and will inherit around $10.8 trillion from their parents.

Boomers are ushering in a “golden age” for tourism, community college education, healthcare, biotechnology, retirement housing, pharmaceuticals, entrepreneurialism, aging-in-place technologies, luxury products, philanthropy, civic engagement, financial services, grand parenting, retailing, traditional media, and online businesses. Every one of these high-growth business sectors creates jobs, careers and tax revenues to help all generations prosper. Boomer spending is already producing many new jobs for young people, as anyone working for hotels and resorts can confirm.

Lindsey Ueberroth, President of Preferred Hotel Group, summed it up with her recent comments to the International Luxury Travel Market: “Preferred Hotel Group believes that the travel industry is on the verge of a true golden age. The opportunities to serve the Boomers are vast. We are going to seek out the Boomers. We are going to serve them well and often. And, we are going to share in the growth and prosperity that they will generate. This is a turning point.”

When you investigate business prospects in other sectors, you’ll hear the same refrains: Boomers are the future. They are buying retirement homes, running organic foods businesses, returning to college, and starting up new companies at the rate of 10,000 per month, 16% faster than any other generational group. They are serving as newly elected governors for states across the nation, such as Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Andrew Cuomo of New York, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, and John Hickenlooper of Colorado.

Contrary to naysayers, this generation is reinventing aging, from business and nonprofit innovation to public policy leadership. This generation presents a menu of extraordinary business and civic opportunities for those who understand the implications and embrace a reasoned and realistic vision of the future.

Brent served as a Colorado at-large delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, sits on the Silverprint Colorado steering committee, and is author of Generation Reinvention: How Boomers Today Are Changing Business, Marketing, Aging and the Future.

Boomer Resources

Senior ForumsSenior Forums is a very active online community where the issues that interest Boomers are discussed, dissected, derided, defended, or downright denied in an aura of friendly chatter and banter among like-minded people.
Bring your sense of humor and join a laid-back, international forum of straight talkers who generously offer common sense to support those who need it and laugh with those who embrace the funny sides of aging.

Fierce with AgeCarol Orsborn, Ph.D., invites readers and followers of her blog to join her for what promises to be an exciting, challenging and rewarding next stage, similar in transformation to earlier chapters of life that the Boomer generation traversed and reinvented over the decades. A respected Boomer business authority and author of 19 books focused on spirituality, Carol trusts that through prayer, meditation, personal and spiritual growth, Boomers have the potential to fundamentally change their lives for the good, experiencing the aging process as “a potent mix of spiritual growth and personal empowerment.”

50plusboomerlife — Boomer life - travel - fashion - facts and more!This charming blog is written with purpose and passion by Kristine Drake, a native of Norway. I met Kristine at a magazine launch event in Stockholm, and we've remained in touch. Please keep in mind that this articulate and insightful blog is being written by someone who uses English as her second language. You'd never know it unless I told you so. Norway is a magical country, so Kristine's European perspective about life after 50 enriches us all.

Fifty Is The New FortySince 2007, FiftyIsTheNewForty.com has been a dynamic, trendy go-to destination for savvy and successful 50-something women. Interviews with prominent Boomers, articles, guest blogs and reviews. Fun, funny, informative, and relevant.

Mark Miller's "Hard Times Retirement" Mark Miller, author of "The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security," is a journalist, author and editor who writes about trends in retirement and aging. He has a special focus on how the Boomer generation is revising its approach to careers, money and lifestyles after age 50.
Mark edits and publishes RetirementRevised.com, featured as one of the best retirement planning sites on the web in the May 2010 issue of "Money" Magazine. He also writes Retire Smart, a syndicated weekly newspaper column and also contributes weekly to Reuters.com.

David Cravit's blogDavid Cravit is a Vice President at ZoomerMedia Ltd. and has over 30 years’ experience in advertising, marketing and consulting in both Canada and the US. His book "The New Old" (October, 2008, ECW Press and recommended here) details how the Baby Boomers are completely reinventing the process of aging – and the implications for companies, government, and society as a whole.

Silver - Boomer Marketing in Asia PacificThe only strategic business and marketing consultancy focused on 50+ in Asia Pacific, SILVER is helping companies leverage the opportunities presented by the rapidly rising population of ageing consumers throughout Asia Pacific. Founder and CEO Kim Walker is a respected veteran of the communications industry in APAC, with 30 years of business and marketing leadership experience in Australia, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York. Silver can INFORM with unique research, data and insight reports into the senior market. ADVISE to help companies increase understanding through audit of their ageing-readiness, strategic workshops, training and executive briefings. CONNECT business to the senior market through refined brand positioning plus relevant and targeted communications strategies.

VibrantNation.comVibrantNation.com is the online destination for women 50+, a peer-to-peer information exchange and a place to join in smart conversation with one another. “Inside the Nation” is Vibrant Nation Senior Strategist Carol Orsborn's on-site blog on marketing to the upscale 50+ woman. Carol, co-author of “Boom,” as well as 15 books for and about Boomers, shares her informed opinions from the heart of the demographic.

Entitled to KnowBoomers better get ready for a deluge of propaganda about why Social Security and Medicare should not be secure and why these programs must be diminished and privatized. This award-winning blog, sponsored by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, provides an in-depth resource of breaking news and cogent analysis. You've been paying for these programs since inception of your career; now it's time to learn how as individuals and collectively we can preserve them for all generations.

Time Goes ByThis is the definitive blog to understand what is happening to a generation as it ages. Intelligent. Passionate. Humanistic.

Route 50PlusProduced by the Dutch organization Route 50Plus, this website brings news, knowledge, and information about the fifty-plus population. The Content and links can be found from more than 4000 national and international sources. Topics include fifty-plus marketing, media, new products, services, and trends. Partners of Route 50Plus include Plus Magazine, 50 Plus Beurs, SeniorWeb, Nederland Bureau door Tourisme & Congressen, Omroep MAX, De Telegraaf, MediaPlus, and Booming Experience.

Dr. Bill ThomasUnder the leadership of Dr. Bill Thomas, ChangingAging.org seeks to elevate elders and elderhood in our society by taking-to-task the media, government and other interest groups who perpetuate a declinist view of aging.

Serene AmbitionSerene Ambition is about what Boomers can do, and more importantly, who Boomers can be as they grow older. Blogger Jim Selman is committed to creating a new interpretation or paradigm for the second half of life

The Boomer ChroniclesThe Boomer Chronicles, an irreverent blog for baby boomers and others, is updated every Monday through Friday, usually several times daily.
Host Rhea is a Boston-based journalist and a Gemini who grew up in a small town in New Jersey. She has written for People magazine and The Boston Globe. She was also managing editor of Harvard University’s newspaper, The Gazette. She wrote the “Jamaica Plain (Boston)” chapter of the book WalkBoston (2003; Appalachian Mountain Club) and started a popular series of Jamaica Plain walking tours in 1996.

LifeTwoLifeTwo is a community-driven life planning and support site for adults who have recognized the speed at which days are passing by. This often begins to happen in-between the mid-30s and the mid-50s. Sometimes this recognition is triggered by a divorce, career change, personal loss or some other significant event and sometimes it is just the calendar hitting 35 or 40. The hosts' goal is to take what otherwise might become a midlife "crisis" and turn it into a positive midlife transition.

BoomerCafé.comBoomerCafé is the only ezine that focuses on the active, youthful lifestyles that boomers pursue. Instead of a brand new edition every week or every month, BoomerCafé is changing all the time, which means there’s often something new to read each time you go online at www.boomercafe.com.

Jean-Paul TréguerJean-Paul Tréguer is the author of "50+ Marketing" and founder of Senioragency International, the first and only international marketing and advertising network dedicated to Boomers 50+ and senior consumers.

Dick StroudGenerational and 50+ marketing is taking off in Europe, with no small thanks to the author of newly published "The 50+ Market."

David WolfeRespected widely for his thought-leading book, "Ageless Marketing," the late David Wolfe established an international reputation for his insights, intellect and original thoughts about the future of aging. This blog carries on ageless marketing traditions in honor of David.

Matt ThornhillBoomer pundit Matt Thornhill has taken new ground with his path-breaking Boomer research. When you need fresh Boomer insights, contact Matt for original research, both online and focus group.

Chuck NyrenChuck Nyren, author of "Advertising to Baby Boomers," is a seasoned creative director and copywriter with talent to match. Ad agencies absolutely need his counsel about any of their clients planning to target Boomers.